Congressman Earl Hilliard,
a member of the US House of Representative, from the 7th district of
Alabama, is under attack. The America-Israel Political Action Committee
(AIPAC) is after him, to defeat him in his district, and to make him a
lesson to future dissidents. Being the first African American to
represent Alabama in the US Congress and a civil rights figure could
not shield him from the wrath of supporters of Israel. So, What did
Hilliard do? He exercised his right not to sign the embarrassing House
resolution that was a tantamount of pledging allegiance to Israel, at
the time the Israeli occupation forces were committing war crimes
against the Palestinian people. He was one of the 21 brave
representatives who said no to AIPAC's tyranny, when the rest of the
members of the US House of Representative signed the resolution on May
2, 2002. Not only that, in December 2001, Hilliard also dared to
challenge the pro-Israel lobby when he was one of the eleven members
of Congress who voted against a Congressional resolution expressing solidarity with Israel in its fight against
Palestinian resistance that Israel calls "terrorism."

Pro-Israel groups have
decided to defeat him, so he does not come back to the House of
Representatives. Through a national campaign, they raised substantial
funds for his challenger, Artur Davis. By doing so, AIPAC and other
pro-Israel groups are bringing back to the United States the notorious
days of McCarthyism, with an additional component, that is zero
tolerance to dissent, even in Congress. This is neo-McCarthyism big
time. Americans should be alerted to the danger this incident
represents for their freedoms, rights, and liberties. Alabama voters
should know that unseating their representative would only serve Israel,
not the 7th district of their state. More important, Americans should be
alerted to the tactics used by pro-Israel groups in their nationwide
efforts to pressure members of Congress to vote for resolutions
that serve Israel, not the US interests.

Hassan A. El-Najjar

6/1/02

Read more information about the subject in the following article
written by James Zogby, President of the Arab-American Institute.

Washington Watch, May 27, 2002

A CONGRESSIONAL ELECTION TO WATCH: THE MIDDLE EAST CONFLICT IN
ALABAMA'S SEVENTH

The lead sentence in a national Jewish newspaper said it all:
"The Democratic primary in Alabama's Seventh Congressional
District, is being closely watched by Israel's supporters, who view it
as a chance to

unseat an incumbent with ties to Arab countries and a spotty record of

support for the Jewish state."

On June 4th, 2002, voters in the Seventh Congressional District of
Alabama's

Democratic primary elections will do more than determine the political

future of Democratic congressman Earl Hilliard. They will also
determine

whether, once again, pro-Israeli groups around the U.S. will be able
to

claim that they defeated a supporter of Palestinian rights.

The Seventh Congressional District of Alabama is the historic home of
many

of the legendary civil rights struggles of the 1950's and 1960's. It
was in

Montgomery, Alabama, that a young African American minister, Reverend
Martin Luther King, led the bus boycott against racial segregation--a
campaign that energized the movement. And it was from a Birmingham, Alabama, jail
cell

that Martin Luther King wrote the famous open letter that served as
one of

the most important statements challenging the conscience of a nation
to

address the injustice of racial discrimination.

Hilliard was one of the participants and beneficiaries of those early
civil